These photos are from a new park the rogs and I started going to last week. It has a nice nubby paved sidewalk extending around the perimeter that’s perfect for walking on.

A playground with tiny kids bopping around means that I have to keep the dogs leashed, but that’s okay.

Yesterday before my dentist appointment I went to the gym and had a nice sweaty session with the Elliptical trainer. I’ve long believed that sweaty cardio does a great job removing tension.

Then, once I had been assured by the Boy that yes, he would be able to drive me to/pick me up from my appointment, I ate an apple pie yogurt and popped a Halcion, prescribed by my dentist. It’s in the benzo family, but the only benzos I have any experience with are X@nax, so I didn’t know what to expect. I recalled Corinne’s zombie-like behavior, and changed into comfortable clothes.

Well, surprise: it didn’t turn me into a zombie. It just made me pleasantly relaxed for the duration of my dental appointment, and, along with Beastie Boys, made the drill a little less…annoying.

“Wait a minute,” I told my dentist at the beginning. “Before you numb me up, I need to remind you to write me a prescription for some pain meds before I leave.”

“Oh, you won’t have any pain,” he chided me, brandishing the numbing swab.

“Historically I do!”

He wrote me a “generous” prescription for five Vicodins. Corinne’s drug-pushing dentist gives her 20 at a time, but who am I to complain? Only five means I’ll use them when I need them. I did wake up at 5 o’clock this morning with my teeth throbbing (his words, “You won’t have any paaaaain” echoing mockingly in my head) and took Ibuprofen and Tylenol instead of the Vicodin.

Vicodin affects me strangely–it almost acts as an upper. So after my appointment I did laundry and dusting and vacuuming and made dinner (fettuccine Alfredo) and did some ab and arm exercises too. No pain!

At least I didn’t have a “surprise” root canal yesterday, ugh, those are the kinds of surprises I can do without…forEVER.

“After you finish removing all the decay,” I told the dentist yesterday, “I’m thinking about getting my teeth whitened.”

Last year when they brought it up I turned them down, thinking that 1. crest white strips are just fine and 2. isn’t teeth whitening dangerous? but now that I assess my teeth, they are sort of a beige tone after years of guzzling coffee and who can forget that nasty smoking habit I once had (I CAN!).

Crest whitening strips work all right but only temporarily. Plus only the front teeth get white, the rest stay…beige. Ewwwwww.

This has definitely been a contender for Most Boring Blog Post Ever–discussing dentists and teeth, yeah?

Well the lesson is–don’t go for years and years and years without seeing a dentist, even if your mom always told you growing up that you have “good” teeth. Trust me, YOU DON’T. And they don’t fix themselves, either. Sniff.